Facing the past
by FromAnotherWorld
Summary: The war seemed won till Venom sent some hit men through a newly developed time gate in a last desperate attempt to kill Star Fox and Star Wolf years in the past. The only way to prevent this from happening is to follow back through time confronting the members of the two teams with their past in a completely unexpected way.
1. Prologue

**Facing the past**

The war seemed won till Venom sent some hit men through a newly developed time gate in a last desperate attempt to kill Star Fox and Star Wolf years in the past. The only way to prevent this plan from being successful is to follow back through time confronting the members of the two teams with their past in a completely unexpected way.

**Prologue**

The atmosphere on board the Great Fox couldn´t have been any better. After a heated battle the enemy base on the surface of the poisonous planet had exploded alongside its owner leading the Lylat system to have been saved by Star Fox once more.

"We´ve made it! We´ve truly made it!" Slippy rejoiced joyfully and with great relief still laughing the fright off. Especially for him it had been really close a couple of times and he meant to have almost had several heart attacks during the fight.

"Great work everyone...", Fox started but was interrupted by Falco "Gee! Just shut up, Foxi. We´ll get enough of that to hear in the following weeks. Apart from that I already know that I´m absolutely perfect."

"I´m just glad it´s over and everyone is fine." Krystal wore a bright smile feeling her heart pound fast inside her chest of both the excitement and stress of the fight and of unlimited happiness.

"´Course we are. Did you ever expect anything different? Now that´s an insult! Though I´ve to agree that Slippy here almost messed things up again."

"Hey Falco, can´t you ever be nice towards me?" the frog complained but right now nothing could spoil his good mood – or at least he thought so.

"We´ve received an urgent call from General Pepper." Rob informed the team with little consideration for the exuberant atmosphere.

"Pepper? Why? We´re finished. Alright, put him on the screen." Fox replied a little confused. Pepper already knew that the war practically was over, didn´t he?

"General?" Fox addressed the hound, "We´ve just defeated the enemy. Is there anything wrong?"

"Indeed there is. It seems the Venomians have managed to complete a former invention of Andross – a time gate to be exact – which is situated in Sector-Z."

"So what´s the problem with that time gate then?" Fox wanted to know no less confused than before. "Couldn´t we just go there then and defeat any remaining enemy forces there?" But the general´s expression told him that it wouldn´t be that easy.

"It seems the Venomians already sent a couple of hit men eighteen years back into the past. They had order to start their mission the moment their planet fell." Pepper explained still looking at a puzzled Fox.

"Alright, what´s their mission then?", Fox inquired more and more realizing that the situation seemed to be quite bad.

"The only one that could defeat the Venomian forces and kill their emperor had been your team and Star Wolf. If neither of your teams were ever formed nothing could have stopped them."

"So you´re saying they´re going to kill us?! In the past?!" Slippy exclaimed in shock staring at the general with widened eyes.

"Now that´s nothing I´d call playing fair.", Falco noted his voice staying his usual laid-back tone. Yet, he could feel a sickening yet vague fear slowly being unlashed inside his heart. However calm he could face any enemy in any battle he knew this was a completely different thing but had no idea what it was.

"Yes that´s their plan."

"But that doesn´t make any sense! If they kill us they might change more than just the outcome of the war! Andross might never be defeated! The Apparoids might never be defeated! They won´t win the Lylat System either way! How could they tell what will happen?! Are they absolutely out of their heads?!", Slippy protested. It wasn´t logical. Why would they ever try? This couldn´t be true! Pepper must have been mistaken!

"It seems to be the last desperate attempt of an obsessed emperor. Fact is some assassins were sent back and the moment they start operating their mission everything might change. Therefore we need to hurry. Star Fox, don´t lose any time to go there and follow them to a time eighteen years ago but bear in mind to not change a thing that you can avoid to change. Find the hit men and take them out and keep your younger versions save but do not take care of any other matter than this. Also we´ve managed to inform Star Wolf of the matter and you will meet up with them at Sector-Z. That you have very different interests when it comes to changing the past should make sure neither team tries considering what is at stake. However, it might be unavoidable to change things as every little incident can have unpredictable consequences. Once you´ve arrived it´ll be you who is to weight up the risks. Be careful Fox but act fast."

"But how should we know where to start. I mean some of us did grow up on other planets than others." Slippy wanted to know desperately trying to understand what was just happening.

"The assassination-attempt is only meant to kill those of you who were on Corneria at that time as none of the others was on each team when they were formed."

"Alright then let´s not loose any more time. Rob set course for Sector-Z!"

I started this a while ago and didn´t update it for quite some time now as writing this story turned out to be more difficult than I thought at first. I´m not quite satisfied with it but I don´t want to leave anything unfinished so I plan on occasionally updating it.


	2. Meeting up

First actual chapter. Yet it doesn´t really show what the rest of the story will be about.

**Facing the past**

**Meeting up**

The members of Star Fox silently stared out into space while the Great Fox slowed down as it arrived in Sector-Z. Each of them was deeply worried trying to comprehend but hopelessly failing.

Slippy looked as if he was close to vomiting and this appearance wasn´t deceptive. Of all Star Fox members he was the one who found it most difficult to keep his nerves in dangerous situations but usually those were situations he basically knew how to handle and he could rely on his team-mates but now all he felt was the sickening certainty that he could simply disappear any moment if they arrived too late.

Also Fox wasn´t feeling much better though less close to vomiting and constantly trying to convince himself that everything would work out well in the end but his tries were rather unsuccessful.

Krystal also was troubled by a confusing mass of thoughts. She found it almost impossible to battle the panicky fear of losing all her friends especially Fox and would have liked to just burst into tears and drop herself to the ground but life had thought her that this was no solution. On the other hand a low voice in the back of her head had started to consider if her home-world would ever have been destroyed if the story had taken a different path and the rest of her loathed this voice for even thinking about it and wanted to burst into tears out of self-hate.

Falco hadn´t said a word since this information had reached them. Too much was going on in his mind. Basically he had the same fears the others shared but there was another thing that bothered him. Even if they would be successful and even if this wouldn´t change a lot in their lives the past was not a place he wanted to go to. He liked to look forwards and to not dwell on things that lay far behind practically denying they even existed. It wasn´t a thing he talked much about but when talking you could at least spare out or alter details but there was no way he could do that when going back in time. He just hoped it would take them only very short to find and kill those hit men and he´d never be confronted with his past. Eighteen years back – it could have been worse but he still didn´t like it one bit. Eighteen years ago was before things would go completely wrong. He wasn´t proud of who he had been eighteen years ago but there were things a bit later on he was much more eager to hide. Eighteen years ago was before his life would fall apart. Still, this was all far too awful and to top it off they had to work together with Star Wolf.

"Star Wolf is approaching the Great Fox." Rob informed them making them snap out of their thoughts.

"Fine. Put them on the screen.", Fox replied still a little distracted.

"Hi, pup, you´re late. We were just about to leave without you.", Wolf greeted his rival seemingly unaffected by the bad news even though he was no less worried than the others. Oddly enough it was Panther of whom one could tell he was nervous by looking at easiest even though he was the only of them whose life wouldn´t necessarily be ended if they failed. Leon´s expression however stayed a motionless mask only slight movements of his hands suggesting he wasn´t as indifferent as he intended to seem and Wolf quite remained his usual self too.

"Hi, Wolf, you guys´re going to board on the Great Fox?" Fox ask assuming that this only made sense as they might take a while from Sector-Z to Corneria and didn´t know for how long they´d have to stay in the past.

"Yep. Let us come in and don´t waste any time, pup, for we mightn´t have it." Wolf answered his team-mates staying quiet. Only Panther sighed nervously and Leon realized he was fidgeting with his hands and stopped doing so becoming a completely motionless statue.

"Alright let´s go down to the docking-bay then." Fox addressed his team and turned round.

"Is that really necessary Fox?" Falco complained. He couldn´t stand that lizard especially now that he had more important things on his mind.

"Yes it is. Just try get along with them, Falco." However, Fox knew quite as well that this could be complicated. Wolf and he had had their past differences – well, maybe more than just differences – and they never actually sorted them out but they wouldn´t have any problem working together. In fact he didn´t mind working together with Wolf at all and Wolf could stay quite factual too. Though Fox couldn´t tell for sure he assumed the lupine wasn´t halfway as eager to kill him anymore as he sometimes claimed. Yet Fox doubted making Falco and Leon stay on board the same ship would be even halfway as uncomplicated. He didn´t know what kind of hostility was between the two of them as Falco had never told him but their relationship seemed to have stayed unchanged bad throughout the years plus Falco could be quite impulsive at times and Fox was quite sure Leon wouldn´t go easy on annoying the avian. But as he truly didn´t know the crazy lizard too well and as he didn´t know why they hated each other so much he could only hope it wouldn´t be worse than he assumed.

xxx

Wolf landed his fighter followed by his wing-mates shortly after and the three of them got out of their Wolfen in silence. He had been quite shocked at firs when they had got to know what was going on but felt almost calm now. As long as they were only traveling there was little he could do anyway. That´s why it was better if he kept a level head and faced the forthcoming problems professionally and not like an amateurish wimp.

Panther, however, never managed to stay as calm and seemingly indifferent as his comrades and they therefore tended to think of him as a limp-dick even though he more than often enough proved this wrong at least if you took the literal meaning of the word. Every movement of his seemed absolutely nervous but after all the things happening right now could cause complete chaos in his life and end the lives of his friends. Yet, he could also find a positive aspect in the whole mass – he´d see Krystal again.

And Leon seemed no less calm than Wolf, however, inwardly he was the complete opposite of his exterior. Almost overwhelmed by the fear for Wolf´s and his own lives he found it extremely hard to maintain a distant attitude. Not that there wouldn´t have been enough things in his past he wouldn´t mind to never take place but he wanted to live now and he wanted Wolf to live. After all Wolf had been his only friend for many many years and the only one he had ever fully trusted. Leon didn´t like to think of most things that had taken place before Star Wolf had been founded but more than going back into those times he hated waiting and being unable to do or change a thing – after all he wouldn´t really go back, he´d only watch his past – at the very most – kill those hit men and return to the present. He could do that, couldn´t he. He needed to be able to do that. He needed to stay calm and not let things go out of hand. And he needed to distract himself now.

Shortly after they had gotten out of their Wolfen the members of Star Fox were approaching them all of them seeming worried though to a different extent and one of them seeming rather disgruntled. "Wolf, as you have already arrived a while ago, do you know how the situation is?", Fox wanted to know.

"Sure. Sector-Z no longer is under enemy-control. Therefore we only need to head towards this time gate and the Cornerians should instruct us on how ta use it and how ta come back."

"Well that´s at least some good news. Let´s go up then."

Together they walked towards the elevator in silence. However, they didn´t stay silent once they were inside it. "Ugh, can´t you stand anywhere else, stinking bird." Leon addressed Falco apparently disgusted after more or less intentionally bumping into him because none of them had been mature enough to go out of the others way and let the other go first.

"Well, I was here firs, slow worm. Apart from that if you find me that disgusting why don´t you go away then?"

"We´re in an elevator, silly parrot. There ain´t anywhere to go, or is that beyond you?" Leon retorted before turning his back on the bird wiping his shoulder where he had bumped into Falco in an exagerated manner and muttering something about avian flue. The reptile was starting to get annoying and he had only been here for a few minutes by now. Fox couldn´t be serious about letting Star Wolf stay on bord the Great Fox for who knew how long!

"I´m neither blind nor death, lizard!"

"Well, that´s another thing I´d like to change." Leon turned round again shooting the bird a malicious smirk.

"Fox, do we really need those idiots? `Cause I´m really close to shooting one of them." Falco ask the vulpine staring at the reptile in anger but there was no time for Fox to answer.

"Wolf, do we really need those idiots? ´Cause I´m really close to cutting the eyes of one of them out and making him swallow..."

"Shut the fuck up you lunatic lizard!"

"And his tongue as well because he got really bad manners." Leon added wearing an ominous sneer as they exited the elevator.

"What the fuck are you talking about fucking reptile?! Because I got really bad manners?! And what about cutting parts of people´s bodies of?! It that NO bad manners?!" Alright, if that lizard wasn´t quiet right now, he´d...

"That – birdie – isn´t up for discussion. And now be a good birdie and behave."

"Alright, listen close you fucking idiot. You are not telling me what to do – not here and not anywhere else. Fuck, it´s not even your ship it´s ours. And you´d better be absolutely quiet now or else..."

"Yeah! Or else what? The problem with this is that I´m far more imaginative when it comes to ways of killing people."

"Doesn´t help you if you are already dead, does it?" Falco glared at the sniggering reptile that wasn´t about to stop annoying him at all.

"No but it helps me to a LOT of fun when killing you."

"Well, but you are not going to kill me and do you know why this is? Because you always lose in dogfights and therefore won´t ever get me. See, you are simply not good enough."

"And you think you are good at flying? Honestly, who was in bad need of help fighting a few lousy Aparoids above Corneria City? And then on the Aparoid´s home-world – "Oh please help me Fox! I got a few enemies on my tail and can´t shake them! – I got Leon on my tail and can´t shake him and it really freaks me out – but no I´m of corse not scared, I am not trembling – well, everyone can see I am – but no I´m merely shivering or whatever!""

"Fuck you! I never said a single of those lines! And that doesn´t change anything about you always losing!"

"Well, right now I am not losing, am I? My little blue parrot goes mad pretty well to every word I say, doesn´t he?"

"Alright! I´ve had enough of you! Keep your fucking mouth shut!" Falco yelled furiously at the lizard kicking him in the abdomen but Leon had reacted fast enough so that Falco´s foot did little more than brushing him.

"Falco!" Fox shouted at him but was completely ignored as the two of them went for each other. Wonderful! Star Wolf staying on bord the Great Fox hadn´t even worked without any complications for a few minutes and Fox feared one of Leon and Falco might use his blaster or other armor if they weren´t separated in time. "Stop it!" he demanded but with no more success than the first time looking at Wolf a bit helplessly who nodded and gave him to understand that each of them would take their team member.

And so they did. As Wolf grabbed Leon and pulled him back Fox held Falco to stop him from hitting Leon. "Fox let go of me! That´s none of your businesses! Damn, keep out of it!" Falco yelled at him trying to pull free. Leon, by contrast, didn´t make the slightest attempt to free himself from Wolf´s grip annoyingly smiling at the avian instead and mouthing "I won" at him.

"Falco now calm down! Ouch! Stop it!" Fox shouted as Falco´s elbow hopefully accidentally connected with his temple. "I won" the lizard repeated inaudible calmly leaning against Wolf. "I won" Annoying the bird had truly helped Leon to take his mind of the actual problem – not that he wouldn´t have done exactly the same if there hadn´t been a problem he had needed to take his mind of – but he felt much better now.

"Falco! That´s really ridiculous!" Falco was still furious but slowly calmed down and stopped wriggling about as it didn´t help him. However, he was very close to trying once more as soon as Fox would let go of him because the infuriating lizard kept mouthing the ever same two words over and over again. "I won" "I won"

"Let go of me Fox!"

"Alright then calm down.", Fox replied, carefully releasing his impulsive friend who at least for the time being kept from attacking his enemy once more. Yet, Leon didn´t stop sneering and repeating those inaudible words.

"Then he shall stop looking that stupidly and shut up!", Falco complained. "See how stupid he is!"

"Yeah, don´t even look at him. Why don´t you just try to ignore him?" Fox suggested without being too positive this would work.

"Yes, birdie, try to ignore me. We´ll see for how long you can do that."

"If you don´t keep your fucking ugly mouth shut right now..."

"Falco, please, it´s enough now. Just calm down. Don´t look at him and don´t talk to him, alright?", the vulpine ask of him but Leon really didn´t simplify the whole matter.

"Be good and calm down birdie. Didn´t you listen? Look into some other direction, will ya, and don´t you say a word."

"For you goes the same, Leon!" Wolf interrupted him making the lizard shut up at least for a moment and finally let go of him. "Fine, if you two fools are finished then we can go on now and try not to lose any more time."

"Alright, let´s hurry then.", Fox confirmed keeping an eye on Falco who was still seething with rage though he had to realize that he possibly had overreacted but he really had already had enough trouble without that lizard. He simply didn´t want to see his past. And even more than that he didn´t want anyone else to see his past. And he didn´t want Leon to be on board the Great Fox, especially not now. With a sigh he looked at his enemy he would have to put up with for a while and Leon expressionlessly looked back at him though something must have gone on in his mind. Falco basically knew he wasn´t the only one who wasn´t too eager on facing his past but that really didn´t change anything for the better.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"The time gate is activated and set to the right time so the enemy shouldn´t be ahead anymore once you arrive." they were informed while they were approaching the gate.

"So all we need do is fly through it like it was a normal warp gate?", Fox inquired wondering how he would get back once he was in the past but Slippy was first to ask.

"But if we go through there and there is no time gate in the past how to travel back then?"

"We´ll sent you a device that takes you back to your original time once you activate it but this original time will most probably be different to what it is now. It can take everything back here you take with you now but no more and no less."

"Fine, then let´s not waste any more time."

So now it was final. Every of them knew what they were about to do but it still seemed strangely unreal to all of them. None of them had even thought time travel was possible till a few hours ago and now they had no other choice.

At least it was better to get started than to wait here and do nothing. Almost all silently agreed about this and the others basically knew it was the only way too.

They all felt determined and many felt scared as the Great Fox slowly passed through the gate bringing them back to another time that had been so very different to the present. As if in silent agreement they all lost themselves in thoughts and memories. There were so many things they had had in their lives and so many they could still have and didn´t want to lose. Somehow knowing that they had at least reached the past was strangely calming only Falco felt sick and Leon badly wanted to kill some bird – but there wasn´t necessarily any connection with going to the past – well maybe a little.

Reviews and criticism are appreciated. Please let me have your genuine opinion.


	3. Younger selves

I really got no idea why I continue this. It just won´t work the way I wanted to. It got so many flaws etc. but somehow I just don´t like to leave anything unfinished.

**Facing the past**

**Younger selves**

Corneria slowly grew bigger as the Great Fox approached the planet but from where they were they couldn´t tell that it really was a different time. Right now the atmosphere on board the Great Fox was surprisingly peaceful. No one made any snide remarks about any one else, no one stared daggers at anyone or mouthed any insults.

The past one and a half days however hadn´t just been a little stressful. Everyone was still shocked and distressed plus it had been difficult to keep Falco and Leon far enough apart to prevent them from quarreling or fighting. Falco truly had tried not to attempt to hit his enemy anymore but after all the things he had heard within the last day he found it more and more difficult.

However, he basically knew that it wasn´t the best idea to constantly argue with Leon. Leon just didn´t seem to leave him much of a choice even though Leon knew so too but somehow annoying Falco helped him to cope with the situation.

"I still can´t believe all of this." Slippy noted watching the planet that looked so familiar to all of them but would be in a very fundamental way different to the last time they had been there. "It looks like the Corneria we have been on just a few weeks ago, but somehow it isn´t."

"Yes, I know, it´s weird." Fox replied a little absently.

"I still can´t believe that there are TWO of me now! That´s just crazy!" the frog exclaimed.

"There are two of all of us, so what?" Falco remarked in a not too polite voice but he was really fed up.

"One of you is already more than enough." Leon noted making Falco glare at him. "A half one would just be fine." the lizard added.

"Shut-up."

"Maybe a little more than a half... I´d say..."

"Shut-up."

"Maybe just without hands and feet..."

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Or maybe..."

"Leon!" Wolf interrupted him. Usually he didn´t really care about Leon trying to annoy Falco but after one and a half days it got on everyones nerves and they had more important things to concentrate on than on trying to prevent fights from escalating.

"Yes."

"Try to act a little professional, will ya? Do you even remember what we´ll do next?"

"Sure I can annoy him and listen to the plan being explained the same time. Apart from that there isn´t much of a plan. Every of us considers where his younger version would be right now tries to find it and watches out for enemies to take care the enemies get killed and not we. We don´t change anything we can avoid to change and if we´re successful we can return to the presence. Krystal goes with Fox to help him and Panther with you even though he´ll be fed up if he can´t be with Krystal." Leon repeated the plan.

"Alright, we should arrive soon. Does everyone have an idea where to find himself?" Fox ask.

"Sure, home or at least somewhere near home and if not home then at your place." Slippy replied.

"I won´t have any trouble finding myself." Wolf answered.

"Vaguely." Leon said.

"Falco?" Fox inquired as the bird kept staring out of the window and didn´t say a word.

"Yes, I know where I am." he replied in a disgruntled tone.

"And that bucket won´t fail to send us our fighters if we need them?" Wolf wanted to know.

"No, Rob will be able to send us our fighters." Fox replied and continued addressing everyone: "We´ll all be close enough together to reach each other fast. Should any of our younger versions be attacked and any of you needs help fighting the hit men just tell the others."

"Everyone knows the plan, Fox." Falco reminded him and kept staring out of the window. He really really hated the whole situation – he hated this time, the mission, Star Wolf, Leon and everything else.

xxx

Falco was walking through a desolate alley. Much to his dislike he had been at his old home but hadn´t been able to find himself there. He hadn´t really expected it too after all he knew he had spent most of his time elsewhere. However, there were many possible places to search for himself.

"Slippy here. I found myself. Everything´s fine over here." he heard the frogs voice in annoyance. Right now he´d rather not hear anyone talk but even he had to admit that it might be necessary to stay in contact.

Actually Falco should have tried to find himself as fast as possible but he felt rather reluctant about hurrying up. It was stupid and it was cowardly to dawdle and waste his time but there was no one to see it and thus he just didn´t care. "Fuck. Why the fuck is this happening?" he mumbled to himself kicking a rusty tin out of the way. With a frustrated sigh the bird went on. Wasting his time wouldn´t help him but only delay his problems. Unfortunately delaying or denying problems instead of solving them was something Falco was really good at.

"I found myself too." Fox informed them making Falco knock over a garbage can. He´d better start looking for himself before everyone else had found themselves but he just didn´t want to and doing things he didn´t want to do was one thing he definitely wasn´t good at.

Falco tried to consider where his younger version might be right now. Hell, he might be anywhere in the streets with his childhood friends doing anything stupid that came to his mind. However, there were a few places he thought to have a good chance of finding him. Even though very reluctantly Falco started to walk faster. There was nothing more annoying and more frustrating than having to do something he didn´t want to do but he just didn´t have a choice.

"Got myself." he hard Wolf´s voice after walking for about ten minutes. Fuck. Now it was just him and Leon who hadn´t found their younger versions and he had no idea where his was. In a very bad mood he went round a corner as a small raccoon bumped into him started to cry and run to its mother. "Mum! Help! I think he´s a murderer!" he heard the small child cry out as he glared at it. Stupid child!

Ignoring the child he went on. It was another stupid child he needed to find. "Falco?" Fox ask.

"Yes, what is it?!" he shouted at him.

"Woah! Calm down. Just wanted to know if you found out where to look for your younger self."

"No I didn´t! But I will! Is that all now?!" Falco retorted realizing two people he passed looking at him very awkwardly. Possibly they thought he was talking to himself. "What is it?! There´s nothing to see! Go mind your own business!" Alright, maybe it´d really be better if he tried to calm down.

For the next few minutes Falco luckily didn´t meet a single person and none of the others had anything important to say so he had some time to try calm his breath. It didn´t help a lot though.

Only as he walked through more narrow and shabby alleys that had seemed to be completely deserted he suddenly heard voices in the distance that sounded vaguely familiar but they were too far away to tell exactly what was going on. It sounded like shouts and laughter. Was this him and a few other children or was he mistaken? Either way he needed to go there and find out. Great! He wasn´t all too keen on it.

With much reluctance he quickened his pace and went round a corner to find five children one of them being himself standing around one who had fallen to the ground. Falco sighed in frustration. Couldn´t he have found himself going after any other stupid activity? This wasn´t exactly the best constellation possible.

For a moment he just stood there watching the avian child, the pink furred kitten constantly trying to lean onto him and constantly being pushed slightly aside, the orange hedgehog, the nightingale, the marten and the other child who now got up from the ground hissing some insults at his younger self and trying to walk past him but being pushed back down and kicked to the ground. "Um, I think I´ve found myself too." Falco told the others.

"Fine. No problems there so far?" Fox ask.

"Well, no hit men or anything like that."

"Leon?" Wolf inquired, "What about you?"

"Nothing. Don´t know where I am." the lizard replied sounding a little frustrated.

Oh, how great! Now he needed to tell him where he was. "Leon, would you come here?" Falco ask awkwardly.

"Why?"

"Well, I think I... know where you are." Falco admitted looking at the children again.

"Alright."

The next few minuted Falco did nothing but watching the children with unease cursing the fact that he and the rest of Star Fox had been sent to the past together with Star Wolf. It wasn´t like he didn´t have any reason to hate Leon but he had got his reason later and thus it didn´t change anything for the better plus waiting here with Leon and observing the situation was just absurd. At least Leon wasn´t here yet so maybe the children would go into different directions before he´d arrive but Falco wasn´t too optimistic about this. Why didn´t every problem have an easy solution?!

"Hi."

With a fright Falco turned round and took a step back. He hadn´t heard anyone come. "Leon? - So, what now?"

"Now? Waiting for some hit men to show up, you idiot. Didn´t you listen to the plan?" Leon ask leaning against the wall opposite to Falco.

"Yeah, I do know the plan." Falco replied looking at the lizard for a while then turning away.

Both of them stood there in silence for several minutes watching the younger version of Leon occasionally getting up and falling down again. Why couldn´t some hit men show up now so that they could get finished and return to the presence? Falco absolutely didn´t like standing here and waiting with Leon standing expressionlessly only a few meters away from him.

The whole situation was very unpleasant and completely abstruse. Why couldn´t he at last wake up from this stupid dream? - the problem was just it was none.

Falco took a deep breath leaned backwards and tried not to think of anything. It only worked reasonably well. His gaze roamed from the children to Leon who hadn´t moved in the past few minutes and back to the children. Why couldn´t anything happen that would enable him to do something else but wait? Falco had never been the most patient but he only remembered few times when waiting had been that unpleasant.

"I think there is... we´re being attacked!" he suddenly heard Wolf´s voice. "I need my Wolfen!"

"Me too!" Panther added and Rob confirmed he had understood.

"How´s the situation? Do you need some help?" Leon ask Wolf. Maybe he would like to get away from here as fast as possible after all even though his face was an expressionless mask.

"The situation is under control so far. Seven enemy fighters." Wolf explained.

Damn, this had been faster than Falco had expected. Obviously they had arrived just in time. Even though it was only Wolf who had been attacked so far it was quite shocking to know they had almost been killed in this time they had only arrived in a short while ago.

"Fuck! They´re not bad!" he heard Wolf growl.

"Just say it if you need some help." Leon replied.

"Shit that was... um, maybe we could use some." Panther noted.

"Alright. Am on my way. You robot, I need my Wolfen! Wait I´m going somewhere where there´s enough space." Leon said walking away but turning round before he disappeared behind the next corner. "You take care here." he told Falco and hurried on.

Falco nodded but the lizard was already gone. At least that changed the situation a little for the better in his opinion. Trying to relax Falco leaned against the wall again. Leon was gone and that was good yet he absolutely didn´t become to like the situation. For so many years Falco had believed to never have to think back to his childhood anymore and now he was standing here. It made him feel frustratingly helpless. And that basically was why his younger version was acting the way he did – helplessness.

It was the reason why he had always been seeking trouble and why he had spent most of his time away from home and why he had finally run away from home at the age of thirteen. This just hadn´t really changed anything for the better either. And then... no, his life had started the day he had joined Star Fox. Everything before wasn´t real – he needed to belief this, but standing here and watching didn´t make his efforts to distance himself from his past any easier.

"Is everything alright over there?" Fox ask Star Wolf after a while.

"Yes. We´ll get along. This scum is persistent though." Wolf replied just as Falco heard an explosion.

There was a hole in a wall and stones were crumbling down. Falco frantically looked around searching for the attackers but he couldn´t see anyone. Luckily the children had all stayed unharmed, however. "I need my Arwing!"

They were completely stunned for a bit longer gaping at the smoldering hole in the wall unable to react properly. Just as the younger version of Leon was about to get up another bomb hit the wall this time a bit closer to the children and all of them were thrown to the ground. Panic broke out making every of them try to get back to their feet as fast as they could. The marten who had been standing the furthest away from the explosion managed to run off the fastest followed by the nightingale. The younger Falco was the next one to get back to his feet but dripped over Leon´s leg.

While the younger Leon and Falco were still struggling to get up Katt and the hedgehog were already running off but she stopped looking back at Falco with a horrified expression on her face and was thrown back to the ground with a shrill shriek as another bomb hit the ground making rubble cut off their way.

The older Falco meanwhile hurried over to the children who were caught with stones blocking their way to have a look if all of them were still alive. He climbed over the heap of rubble seeing the little Katt run back to his younger version with tears of terror in her widened eyes. The younger Falco had got up by now frantically looking for an escape and the little Leon was running towards the hole the first explosion had left in a wall.

Falco leaped over the blockade of stones running towards Katt and himself. "C´mon! You go over there too!" he told them urging them towards the crack in the wall Leon was trying to get through but the small lizard didn´t manage to push enough rubble out of the way that was blocking the hole.

Leon desperately tried to roll some of the stones out of the way to escape but he lacked the strength to do it and the hole was just a bit too narrow for him to squeeze through. He tried to push them into the inside of the building but with no more success and then got up and kicked against them in frustration realizing three people coming closer.

As someone bend down beside him he automatically backed away jumping backwards and panicky looking for somewhere to run to but every way was blocked. Meanwhile Falco removed some of the rubble that had prevented Leon from getting through the crack and told the children: "Listen, all of you. You get in there now and there you stay till I return and tell you to come out. Everything will be alright. Now go."

The younger Falco was the first one to creep through the hole but this was complicated by Katt desperately clinging onto him and wiping her tears into his shirt. Yet both of them managed to get through the hole quite fast only Leon hadn´t moved eying Falco with distrust. "Now creep through the hole." Falco urged him but the lizard didn´t move simply staring at him his expression staying unchanged. "Hurry. They´re not gonna just go away again." he told Leon walking a step towards him but the little lizard stumbled one back looking to both sides for a way out.

Resigned Falco stopped and went a few steps backwards wondering what scared the lizard so much. Maybe it was because he looked very much like himself but something about the chameleons distrusting attitude made him think this wasn´t the whole reason. "Would you go now?" Leon still didn´t move and Falco didn´t know what to do and he didn´t have the time to consider it as another explosion almost hit him and threw him against the wall.

Falco´s head bumped against the bricks and he fell to the ground with a groan trying to shake the searing pain that radiated from his temple out of his head. Cursing he got up again to see two fighters zoom past him. With tiny steps Leon approached the crack in the wall constantly keeping an eye on Falco. Even though he was in a hurry and the enemies could return any moment Falco decided not to move worrying the little Leon might run away again if he did.

As the lizard-child reached the hole he stopped for a moment staring at Falco till Falco slowly started to walk backwards. Only as Leon seemed to find him far enough away he took his gaze off him and crept through the crack. "Stay here till I return! This is important!" Falco repeated but he had his doubts Leon would do so.

Only as Falco turned round to run to a place where he could get his Arwing Fox seemed to have become impatient with the long time he hadn´t heard anything from Falco. "You alright? How´s the situation?" the vulpine wanted to know.

"Yeah, everyones fine here. It just took me a while to get the children out of immediate danger. Someone´s quite paranoid. I´m gonna head for my Arwing." Falco informed the others.

"You´re not in your fighter yet?" Krystal´s worried voice wanted to know. "Do you need some help over there?"

"No I´ll get along. Seem to be only two enemies. Apart from that they could attack at any time in any other place too." Falco explained climbing over the blockade of rubble and running to find a road that was broad enough for Rob to sent his Arwing there.

As soon as he had reached it he got into his ship and took off. Finally being able to see the enemies and fight them had a very reassuring and calming effect on him. This was more like the things he had used to do so many times during different wars. It felt so familiar he could almost have done it in his sleep.

Falco flew towards the enemy-fighters that were just about to shoot at the building the children were hopefully still hiding in and concentrated his fire on the closer one but he soon had to realize this were no usual ships but they were equal to his Arwing.

The enemy barrel-rolled to repel the laser-beams and returned fire zooming directly towards Falco. The bird needed to abruptly swerve to the right to avoid crashing into his opponent´s fighter and flew an U-turn to get behind one of the ships. He landed a few hits tailing his enemy but the other fighter soon forced him to an evasive action that unabled him to further follow the enemy.

Falco flew a loop to shake off his opponent but the enemy followed close behind shooting at him. He barrel-rolled to the side and managed to get behind the other fighter with another loop but for a short moment he had disregarded the second enemy and a laser-beam hit his Arwing.

Cursing Falco tried to get behind the other enemy but only landed one hit before he was shook off and tailed by the first one again. He shot at the other fighter zooming past him and looped shaking his pursuer off.

For a short while he managed to tail one of the ships again causing considerable damage but the other enemy landed two hits and he had to stop following behind the ship he was tailing not to be downed by the other.

For a while Falco was concentrating on nothing but the fight flying multiple maneuvers trying to defeat his enemies till he suddenly was disturbed by one of his team-mates voices.

"Damn!" Krystal exclaimed. "We´re being attacked too!"

"What?!" Slippy want to know sounding panicky. "What are we supposed to do?!"

"Are you alright?" Falco ask even though there was no way he could help them as he was more than just busy with his own attackers.

"Yes, we´ll get along." Fox replied.

"If you need some help just say it. There are only three enemies left anymore where we are. However, those cowards always flee when their shields are low." Wolf noted just the moment Falco thought to have almost downed one of the fighters but the enemy didn´t stay long enough to enable him to shoot him down.

"Shit! One of them just escaped me. It´s no point if they don´t die! We can´t stay here forever." Falco complained while barrel-rolling to dodge some laser-beams.

"Seriously, guys! What are we gonna do?! We can´t stay here and watch over our younger selves forever and the enemies might return any time!" Slippy ask in despair.

"It appears we have no choice. We need to win this fight and then we´ll take our younger selves to the Great Fox." Fox decided though reluctantly.

"We kidnap ourselves, fine! But what about not changing a thing?" Leon wanted to know.

"We´re carrying out a fucking battle here! Everything is already changed!" Wolf noted.

"Woah! Three enemies here! Can anyone help me?!" Slippy exclaimed.

"Am on my way. You two get along here, no?" Panther replied.

"Sure we do." Wolf answered.

Falco meanwhile kept fighting the remaining enemy. At first he hadn´t let the conversation distract him but now it made him feel sick. Take their younger versions to the Great Fox – why the fuck?! And he had hoped to be finished after this day and to return to the presence. But now it seemed this mission would take much longer.

The genres I choose for this story are no mistake. Just wait for future chapters.


	4. Looking for Leon

This chapter sets in where the last one left out. Falco got one enemy left to fight. Fox and Krystal are fighting together to save the younger Fox, Wolf and Leon are fighting in another place and Panther just came to Slipy´s aid.

**Facing the past**

**Looking for Leon**

Falco had to swerve sharply to the left in order to avoid some more hits. He flew past his opponent´s fighter and U-turned shooting at the enemy from above. Tailing the hit-man´s fighter he landed a few hits but the enemy flew so many evasive maneuvers he had trouble not to let him shake him off.

"Aah! This doesn´t look good!" he suddenly heard Krystal´s troubled voice.

"Are you alright my dear Krystal?" Panther wanted to know.

"Yes, it´s just, they´re too many!" the vixen replied. "Is there anyone who isn´t too busy with his own enemies and can help us out?"

"We only got two enemies left over here. One of us could come to your help." Wolf replied.

"Okay, would you hurry please." Krystal ask them noticeably distressed.

"Fine, am on my way." Leon answered sounding almost bored.

Meanwhile Falco kept concentrating on his own opponent. The other pilot wasn´t bad but Falco clearly had the upper hand soon causing considerable damage to his enemy´s fighter. Just as he hoped this one wouldn´t escape the enemy sped up and zoomed into the clouds where Falco wasn´ able to aim.

For a short while the bird kept looking for the hit-man but soon had to realize how pointless this was as the other´s ship no longer was on his radar either but had obviously left. "I´m finished here." he informed the others. "Both enemies have escaped, however."

"Alright. What about the children?" Fox wanted to know.

"They´re hiding in a damaged building." the avian replied.

"The situation here and everywhere else is under control so far. So would you fetch them and take them to the Great Fox." the vulpine answered.

"Okay." Falco said unable to completely hide his dislike of how this mission had turned out. He wanted to smash something to let off steam but he was sitting in his Arwing and would still need his fighter. That´s why he just landed his ship instead of breaking something and reluctantly got out of it walking towards the place where he had told the children to hide.

Without bothering to hurry he climbed over the blockade of rubble that had previously cut their way off and walked towards the crack in the wall. The building hadn´t taken any further damage during the dog fight and thus he didn´t worry any of them could have gotten injured.

"Hey! It´s alright now! You can come out!" he called and it didn´t take long till he could hear someone move behind the wall. A blue-feathered head turned up in the hole in the wall and soon the avian child had crept out of the hole followed by the pink-furred kitten desperately clinging to him and burying her face in his shoulder ignoring his obvious tries to push her off.

"What the fuck just was that?!" the younger Falco almost yelled looking in shock at the destruction the hit-men had caused.

"That´s a longer story. Let´s just say those were hit-men whose mission it is to take you out and that´s why you need to come with me." Falco explained.

"Kill me?! Why the fuck?! I didn´t do anything... well at least nothing that justifies killing me... did I?" the child exclaimed looking at Falco insecurely.

"No, well, it´s not exactly about anything you did. I´ll explain everything to you later but now you need to come with me." Falco replied.

"And if I don´t believe you?! Why would I trust you? Who are you anyway?" the younger Falco ask acting much more self-confident than he really felt right now. In fact all he was was scared, confused and turning sick when only thinking of what had just happened.

"I´m a mercenary who was sent here to prevent your death but those hit-men are only gone for the moment and will return." Falco explained impatiently.

"A mercenary? You don´t look like a mercenary, rather just a show-off." the child replied with an expression of cocky stubbornness.

Falco glared at his younger version angrily. What an arrogant little brat. Then again what did he expect? "Listen, if you value your life you´d better come with me... where´s Leon?" Falco looked around in confusion. Only now he realized that someone was missing.

The avian child shrugged his shoulders with an indifferent smug smile. "Who cares?"

Great! That´s all he needed! Now he didn´t only need to deal with his own impudent younger self but somehow find that lizard. "That´s fucking important! Do you have any idea where he is? Fuck!"

"Well how should I know. Maybe that fool wet himself and is hiding somewhere."

"That´s not funny at all!" Falco tried to calm down and not to lose his tempt but it really wasn´t easy. With a sigh of frustration he said. "This is way more serious than you seem to realize. The both of you nearly would have died today. If I had arrived only a few moments later you might be dead now. That´s why we can´t lose any more time and if you have any idea where he might be hiding you´d better tell me."

Even though it was himself Falco had no idea what was going on in the other avian´s mind but as the child answered his voice was less cocky but showed fear and helplessness. "I don´t know where he went. After he climbed through that hole he ran off. I think he´s still somewhere in that building but I don´t know." That was the first time today he had acted halfway sensible.

"Okay, then I guess I need to find him before we can go." Falco noted and went to the hole in the wall getting some more rubble out of the way.

"So, this is all real?" the younger Falco wanted to know and Katt looked up with her tear-smeared face for the first time silently asking the same question.

"Yes, this is all real." Falco replied as he had gotten enough stones out of the way to fit through the hole. "The two of you wait here. I´m going to look for Leon."

"Then... can we help you?" his younger version wanted to know.

"It´s better you two stay here. Otherwise I might need to look for you afterwards."

"And if we promise to return to the entrance every five minutes?" the younger Falco suggested.

Falco sighed. He didn´t have any time to discuss this now. "Alright. But you do return every five minutes and not a single second later." the bird took clear. After all he knew punctuality wasn´t his strong point. He could only hope none of the children would do anything completely stupid.

Falco crawled through the hole followed by his younger version and Katt who was finally able to walk by herself and did no longer desperately cling to him. "Do you have any idea where he went?" Falco wanted to know. The room he was standing in was very dull and the ground was covered by a deep layer of dust. There certainly hadn´t been a single person in this room for a long time.

"He ran over there. But I don´t know. Hey! I think that´s footprints." the younger Falco replied pointing towards a broken door. Together they went on observantly looking around.

"There are spiders everywhere. I hate spiders." Katt whispered in a scared voice trying to look behind every dark corner fearing the dangers that might hide there. The young Falco on the other hand tried to act brave, however, he found this place very creepy too and was just glad he didn´t need to walk around here on his own. Maybe he should rather have stayed outside but he couldn´t admit how scared he was.

"Do you think there are ghosts?" Katt inquired her voice sounding too shrill.

"Ghosts do not exist. If you don´t want to be scared, Katt, then stop telling horror stories." Falco advised her entering the next room. The door made an eerie creak as he pushed it further open making Katt shriek. "Alright, where could Leon have gone?" There was hardly any light left and it was difficult to make out possible footprints in the dust.

"I don´t like this; I don´t like this." Katt mumbled halfway wishing she would have stayed outside but she didn´t like the idea of waiting there on her own either.

"Here. I think that´s footprints." Falco noted walking on. The old floor under his feet sounded as if it might break any moment. Just why did no one ever pull down this building? It couldn´t have been used for ages.

"Aah!" Katt screamed at the top of her voice.

"What is it?" Falco wanted to know while his younger version stared at her in shock.

"There´s a spider! There´s a spider in my shirt!" she shrieked. Falco couldn´t help realize that every version of Katt was annoying no matter what age she was. She desperately turned to his younger version. "Take it out! Please take it out!"

"What?! Are you crazy?! Then it bites me!" the avian child exclaimed jumping a step backwards and Falco couldn´t help role his eyes. He shouldn´t have allowed the children to follow him inside this building but at least they had stayed with him so he wouldn´t have to look for them afterwards.

After Katt had been turning in small circles for a while shrieking and jumping around a big black spider dropped out of her shirt, fell to the ground and crawled away. Panting for breath she stood there staring at it. "I hate spiders." she repeated.

"Whatever, come on now." Falco urged them and continued following the footprints into the next room. They led towards a huge pile of junk that was stacked up against the wall. To make sure no footprints led out of this room Falco looked around before turning towards the pile of junk again.

"Leon?"

No reply.

"Leon, I know you are here." Falco tried again but no sound indicated anyone had heard him. "Would you come out of your hiding place?" Still no one answered making Falco wonder if the lizard was really there. Just why was this mission so frustrating?

For a short moment Falco got distracted by one of his team mates´ vice. "Slippy here. All hit-men are gone." but he didn´t buy further attention to the frog but continued trying to talk to the younger version of Leon.

"I´m not going to do a thing to you but those people who tried to blow you up are and therefore you need to come out now." However, the lizard, if he was even there, didn´t move. Falco tried to think of a way to make him come out because he really wasn´t too keen on having to get all that junk out of the way. "Leon, don´t be stupid. They might return any moment."

"What are we gonna do if he doesn´t come?" Katt wanted do know.

"Why does anyone want to kill me and him. There´s not a reason." the younger Falco wondered.

"There is more reason than you could imagine. I´ll tell you later but now we first need him to come out of this stupid heap of junk." Falco replied impatiently.

"Are you sure he´s even here?" Katt ask doubtingly.

"Yes. Where else should he be?" Falco answered but he wasn´t that sure. There was something wrong with the lizard – that meant something else but the things he had known before – but even so Leon had to realize that he was in danger and´d better come out of his hiding place.

"Leon? Look, we don´t have all day and this is important. You could easily get killed." It was like talking to a brick wall – as pointless and as frustrating.

"Okay, he must have crept in there." the younger Falco pointed out looking at a gap between the left half of a chair and a moth-eaten sofa attempting to creep through it.

"Wait." Falco stopped him. "If the two of you get in a fight down there and everything falls onto you it mightn´t be too good."

"But what do we do then if he´s too stupid to come out?" the avian child wanted to know getting up from the ground again.

"Look there!" Katt pointed to the other end of the pile of junk where a low rustling sound was audible as the little Leon crawled out of it attempting to run off but Falco stepped in between him and the door making the lizard stop.

"Wait. You did realize that those hit men tried to blow you up, didn´t you?" Falco tried again but the impression of talking to a wall of bricks didn´t go away. Just how should he explain this so that Leon would listen?

"That idiot..." Falco´s younger version started.

"Would you just be quiet." he interrupted him.

While he was trying to come up with anything to say Wolf informed the rest of them: "I´m finished. Gonna take myself to the Great Fox now."

"Alright. We´re almost done too." Krystal explained.

"I´m already halfway back to the Great Fox." Slippy said.

"What about you, Falco?" Fox wanted to know.

"Yes, they´ve both stayed uninjured but someone doesn´t want to come with." Falco replied.

"Who are you talking to?" the other Falco wanted to know.

"The rest of my team and the other mercenaries we are working together with." Falco replied impatiently.

"But why does anyone want to kill us? And why does anyone sent mercenaries to protect us? And why are they not here then?" the younger Falco wondered.

"This we´ll explain to you as soon as we´re in a safe place. And the other´s aren´t here because they had to take care someone else didn´t get killed."

"So there are more people someone wants to kill? Do they have anything to do with us?" the avian child ask.

"No they don´t yet." Falco explained. Actually he´d rather somehow get Leon come with him than answer all his younger version´s questions.

"Yet?! So they will? But how do they know?" the little bird exclaimed.

"I said the whole matter is a bit complicated. I´ll explain it as soon as the both of you are in a save place."

"The both?" Katt interrupted him. Did she dislike the idea of not being in any immediate danger now? Though thinking it over Falco didn´t know for sure if she was in any danger or not.

"Well, or maybe all three of you. Though I don´t think anyone wants to kill you." he replied. It was saver to take her with after all.

Katt smiled weakly as a response. She absolutely didn´t like the idea of staying behind and after all she wanted to know what was going on but she was still too scared to know if she should feel relieved.

Falco carefully took a step towards Leon watching the lizard´s reaction but there was none. The chameleon simply stood there as if frozen and stared at him with an expression of deep distrust. For a moment Falco didn´t do a thing trying to predict how Leon would react but it was impossible so he continued slowly approaching the lizard-child and Leon continued staring at him.

"Alright, would you come with me now?" Falco tried to talk as calmly as possible but he thought he´d soon lose his patience. As the lizard didn´t react Falco slowly took him by the hand making him slightly back away but not panic.

At first Leon didn´t move obviously trying to asses the situation but then he started to slowly follow towards the exit. All four of them soon reached the crack in the wall they had used to enter just as Fox informed Falco and the rest of StarFox and StarWolf that he was finished fighting his enemies too.

"Okay, let´s get out of here." Falco said and his younger version and Katt started crawling through the hole in the wall hesitantly followed by Leon. As Falco had left the building himself too he was just relieved that all the children were still there and no one had tried to run off or done anything stupid. "Come on." He walked towards the barrier of rubble. "Alright, we need to get to the other side of it." the bird noted helping his younger version to climb up.

"You wait on the other side." he told the avian-child while lifting Katt up onto the barrier.

"Where are we going?" the younger Falco inquired.

"First to my ship." Falco replied while turning towards the little lizard who took a step back. Again he wondered what was wrong with the child. He tried to think of everything he knew about Leon´s past that could possibly explain his strange behavior but somehow he couldn´t find enough reason. Then there was something he didn´t know.

"Come on now. There´s no other way." Hoping the child wouldn´t step further back Falco walked towards him lifting the reluctant lizard up and onto the barrier of rubble climbing over it afterwards. They only needed to walk for a short while till they reached the place where Falco had landed his Arwing.

"Cool! That´s your ship?! I´ve never seen any ship like this. What is it? Though it looks similar to an Arwing." Falco´s younger version exclaimed marveling at the fighter.

"Well, actually it is an Arwing." he replied.

"No it´s not. An Arwing looks slightly different. Apart from that only StarFox is flying them. Wait... why is there the Starfox-symbol on it? You´re not a member of StarFox, are you?" the avian child looked at Falco in confusion.

"Oh yes, I am a member of StarFox but that´s a longer story and the ship looks different because it´s newer and better."

"You are...? No, you´re lying. You can´t be a member of StarFox, can you? And this is not an Arwing, is it?" The younger Falco inquired unable to believe what the other one was telling him.

"I said it was a longer story. So if you come with me now I can explain it to you."

"But how shall we come with you? There´s only space for one person." Katt wondered.

"Well, you could sit on the wings. If you hold onto them there´s no risk of falling off." Falco explained.

"On the wings? Cool! It´s forbidden to transport people on a ship´s wings!" the younger Falco exclaimed smiling brightly at the imagination of it. "I´ve only once been on a ship´s wing and that ship wasn´t nearly as cool as this one and that dude couldn´t fly so he crashed into a tree. That was pretty awesome though I sprained my wrist and had a brunch stabbed through my shoulder."

"Yeah, well this time you sit down and don´t jump around on it. And you didn´t have a brunch stabbed through your shoulder. It merely scratched you." Falco told his younger version.

"I... how do you know I was jumping around on it? You can´t know that! And how do you want to know if that brunch was stabbed through my shoulder or not?!" Now the younger Falco was completely confused. He couldn´t imagine why this bird who claimed to be a member of StarFox knew those things.

"Look, if you want me to explain the situation to you, you will need to come with me now." Falco repeated and his younger version didn´t take long to eagerly climb onto the ship´s wing.

"Now you two will need to get up there too." he told the other children.

Katt looked at the Arwing a little insecurely. "C´mon Katt, don´t be such a coward." the avian child urged her.

"I am not a coward but you said the last time it was completely safe and then we crashed into that tree!" she complained while climbing onto the ship´s wing sitting down beside Falco. "You got to watch out that I don´t fall off. You got to promise that."

"Just hold onto it, will ya." the bird replied.

"You get up there too." Falco told Leon who still didn´t seem to trust him one bit but slowly did as Falco had told him. The skinny lizard-child sat down on the other wing than the one the younger Falco and Katt were sitting on while Falco got into his cockpit preparing to take off.

At least he was finished with this now. Even though Falco hated the whole situation undiminishedly he felt quite relieved because he finally had all the children and could take them to the Great Fox which he absolutely didn´t want to do but no matter how little he liked it he had to admit that there was no other way.

One last time he looked to both of his sides to make sure all the children were still there and no one was doing anything stupid before carefully taking off. Yet he could tell the whole matter would cause far more problems than he could imagine.


	5. An unbelievable story

Well, this chapter went a bit short but at least it didn´t take me a horribly long time to update. The next one, however, might take a while as I´m trying to write the next chapter of my other story and it´s a little difficult.

In case anyone had been wondering what age the children in my fanfic were; the´re about ten plus minus one year.

**Facing the past**

**An unbelievable story**

"That thing is huge!" Falco´s younger version exclaimed being quite impressed as they landed in the docking-bay of the Great Fox. Also Katt seemed to be less scared now and was marveling at everything with interest; only the little Leon was as remote and reserved as before seeming rather anxious and withdrawn than impressed.

"Are you gonna tell us now what´s going on here?!" the younger Falco wanted to know as soon as Falco had got out of his Arwing.

"First come with me. Then we´ll explain everything to you." he replied starting to walk through the metal corridor closely followed by his younger version and Katt and followed with a little more distance by the younger version of Leon.

"Would you all come here." he told them as he had got into the elevator. The avian child and the kitten seemed to be quite excited now having almost forgotten about the danger they had been in not even an hour ago. Only the lizard-child leaned against the wall as far away from the others as possible with a distrusting but apart from than unreadable expression. Falco looked at him for a while trying to figure out what was going on in his mind but it was pointless. There needed to be a reason for his anxiety other than the two other children but there was just no way Falco could have told what it was.

As they went on voices soon grew audible. "Are those the others?" the younger Falco wanted to know and Falco nodded while entering the room where everyone else was already waiting for them. This time all three children reacted at least similarly. For a moment all of them were too astonished to say or do a thing simply staring at the people they saw.

Actually those people wouldn´t have seemed too odd apart from some of them being dressed not the most usual way and one of them wearing a mechanical eyepiece but the most startling thing about them was that each of the present children looked remarkably similar to one of the grown up people.

The younger Falco simply gaped at what he saw for what seemed to be a long time before he looked at Falco in utter confusion. Usually he would have thought those people were simply related to each other but he didn´t know the other bird and also apart from that they just looked too similar.

Katt held her breath till she got a little dizzy staring at everyone out of widened eyes. Also she was completely confused about how alike always a younger and an older person were but she couldn´t help realize that there was no one looking similar to her and that the younger versions of two people in the room were obviously missing. That bird who looked so much like Falco had said she wasn´t in any immediate danger. Was this because there was no other Katt? But that made no sense to her. Yet it made her feel almost disappointed.

And the younger Leon instantly took a step backwards as he saw all the people in the room trying to figure out what was going on but his mind couldn´t find any logical explanation. To him it seemed there was something really fishy about the whole situation. He even thought about running off but where should he have fled to? He was in a space-ship and thus trapped. Therefore he carefully followed the others into the room being always on his guards. No matter how much he disliked everything about his current situation and actually not just about his current he couldn´t deny how curious he was to find out what was going on.

"Punctually as always, Falco." a brownish orange fox remarked as they entered causing the younger Leon and the other children to be even more confused. The vulpine had definitely looked at the bird who had taken them there. So he was called Falco too just as the blue idiot who looked so much alike him? This was truly disturbing.

"Not my fault. Someone was... well, never mind. Can we get over with this then?" Falco complained. "Did you already explain to the other´s what´s going on?"

"No, we wanted to wait till we were complete. Alright, then let´s get started." the fox replied looking at all the curious, confused and/or scared children.

"As you will have realized by now everyone of you... well apart from one... looks like a younger version of one of us. You mightn´t believe me if I tell you the truth now but... that´s exactly what you are." the fox started to explain.

"Younger versions of... what the fuck... tell me another!" the younger Falco interrupted him.

"Wait, I´ll explain." Fox tried again. "We are mercenaries and in the future we have killed an evil emperor of Venom who had declared war on the Lylat-System – or actually not just one, but for the current situation only this one is important – but he ordered some mercenaries to travel back in time through a newly developed time-gate should he get defeated. Their mission is to kill everyone who was essential for his defeat in the past and our mission is to prevent this from happening."

"A time-gate? But that´s not possible, is it?" a tiny frog-child ask in puzzlement.

"It doesn´t exist yet but it will." his older version replied.

"So you are me and he is him and he him and he him and he him?" the younger Fox inquired in utter confusion.

"Exactly." Fox replied.

"Alright, he is me? And where´s my eye?" Wolf´s younger version wanted to know in bewilderment. "Where the fuck?! You don´t truly want us to believe that do you?! None of us is a stupid three year-old!"

"Our eye isn´t the biggest problem now." the other Wolf replied.

"Yeah, well, but why is it gone?!"

"I´m a mercenary and shit happens." Wolf said not revealing anything more.

"So you say we are all gonna be mercenaries?" the avian child ask. Somehow he liked the idea of becoming a mercenary and the killing an evil emperor thing was quite awesome too. This almost made him want to believe the whole story. It sounded as if he´d be really great at what he was going to do.

"Yes, all of you are gonna be mercenaries." Fox confirmed.

"That´s pretty cool! He" the younger Falco motioned at his older version. "Said something about two teams or at least one and some other mercenaries?"

"Yes, me him, him and her are StarFox and those three are StarWolf." Fox explained to the bird.

"So what are we? Allies, rivals? Why are the teams called so similarly anyway?" the wolf-pup wanted to know.

"We´re usually rivals and sometimes we´re allies too. And if you want to know why your future team is called StarWolf you´ll have to ask him not me." Fox replied.

"Who cares? It´s just a name. Come up with something better later on if you don´t like it." Wolf noted.

"I´m gonna be a mercenary? But I never wanted to become a mercenary. That´s far too dangerous." the even more little Slippy wondered.

"Hey, as you see I´m still alive. And it´s pretty fun." his older version answered.

"O-okay. Hey Fox! I´m gonna be on your future team!" the tiny frog exclaimed smiling broadly at the vulpine-child.

Four of the children seemed though utterly confused quite excited about those news only Katt looked like someone who had bitten into something very sour and Leon´s younger version still kept his distance. Yet he couldn´t deny that he didn´t dislike the idea of becoming a mercenary he just had never thought about it and it was something very different to his plans for future. Actually he had been thinking about becoming a surgeon but a mercenary was fine too. However, at least he knew now that he would have had a future if those people who wanted to kill him hadn´t showed up and maybe he would even so.

"Katt? Anything the matter?" Krystal ask carefully.

"No everything is fine!" the kitten snapped. "Am I dead or doing something else in the future?!" Fighting back tears she glared angrily at Krystal though Krystal wasn´t the reason for her rage but Katt couldn´t help realize that she obviously wasn´t on that mercenary-team whereas Falco was.

"No, you´re not dead. You gonna be a pilot too and fight in battles." Krystal tried to explain but she knew she couldn´t calm the kitten down without lying to her.

Despite all her efforts to hold them back the first tears started rolling down Katt´s cheeks. "Fuck that future and all of you!" she yelled storming out of the room. Only a low voice in the back of her head told her how irrational and childish she was reacting but she just didn´t care.

"You think it was clever to bring her here?" Krystal ask addressing Falco.

"I never said it was clever. She was there too and she too almost got blown up, so what?" the bird replied angrily.

"Alright." she sighed slightly shaking her head.

"So he is on my future team and where is the other one of him? Who are they anyway?" the younger Wolf wanted to know.

"Panther isn´t on the original team. He joined later on and his younger version isn´t here because no one attempts to kill him right now and he´s not even on Corneria. And you´d actually have met Leon in about two years time." Wolf explained. "He´s my best friend."

"Hi, I don´t know you but you´re my best friend! Nice to meet you!" the wolf-pup greeted the lizard-child who timidly smiled back at him. This was all a little too much at once for Leon. So he´d have a friend? Maybe he´d become to like his future after all, provided that the whole story was true but he couldn´t imagine any other reason why those people would want them to believe this.

"I think my friend is scared of me." the younger Wolf noted shrugging his shoulders. "But why will Fox and me be rivals?" he ask. He didn´t know Fox for a long time yet but so far they had always gotten along quite well with each other. The only thing he disliked was Fox´ father.

"That´s a longer story. Just wait and see." Wolf replied keeping in mind to change as little about the future as possible. If he had told his younger version everything many things would certainly happen differently to how they were meant to and this was far too risky. Even if it didn´t directly endanger him or Fox it could still alter the outcome of the forthcoming wars or it could harm Leon.

"Wait and see? I don´t want to wait and see! Why don´t you ever tell me anything?!" the wolf-pup wanted to know glaring at his older version. "My eye will be gone and me and Fox will be rivals. Why can´t you just explain those things to me?"

"We shall change as little about the future as possible. Every change is very risky. Though I doubt that anything has stayed unchanged." Wolf explained.

"Not change a thing? So you don´t want to have a second eye?" the lupine-child ask.

"This is not about me wanting to have two eyes or not. It´s about far more important things. Apart from that it´s not a big impairment. You´ll learn to cope and that´s it. Everyone of us would like to change a couple of things about his past but none of us could predict what we would cause if we did so and things one of us might want to change could be very bad for another of us." Wolf replied starting to get impatient with the stupid discussion about his missing eye.

"But as everything is already changed I might quite as well not lose my eye?" his younger version concluded. No, he couldn´t lose his eye. He still needed his eye.

"Maybe. Maybe not. I don´t know."

"But there´s another problem." Krystal considered. "We have just kidnapped all the children. Won´t anyone be worried? I mean they should probably be at home by now shouldn´t they?"

"That´s true but what we did was unavoidable and we can´t let them go back home now." Fox replied. "Well, where should you all be right now?" he ask addressing the children.

"I´m staying with Vivian as long as dad is working. He won´t return in the next two weeks." his younger version replied. "She... do you think she´ll believe I got killed when her house was shot at? We should tell her that I´m fine."

"At the moment we can´t inform anyone about what´s going on but we´ll try to find a solution as fast as possible." Fox promised.

"You know, it´s not good for her heart if she got a lot of stress. She´s ill even though she denies it but I heard Peppy talk about it." the little vulpine worried.

"Yes, I know but there´s nothing we can do about it right now. What about the rest of you."

"I want back to my mom. She´ll be so scared." the frog-child replied suddenly looking sad and lonely.

"Alright. If we´re lucky we´ll find those hit men who want to kill you soon and then you can go back home." Krystal told him.

"My mom will be worried sick. I should be home by now." Wolf´s younger version said.

"Falco what about you." Krystal wanted to know.

"Who cares?" the avian child replied.

"Is there no one who´s gonna wonder were you are?" she inquired.

"I don´t care if they worry." the little Falco answered brusquely. Most probably his parents would be worried when they realized he went missing but they didn´t deserve it any better. All his dad had ever been concerned about was his business anyway so he could quite as well stick to that; his mom wasn´t much better and both of his brothers were idiots.

"Alright and do you know about Katt?" Krystal ask sensing the child´s anger.

"Her mom will already wonder where she is." the younger Falco replied talking in a less aggressive tone than he had been talking in about his own parents.

"Well, maybe we should bring her back home but who knows what those hit men might come up with." the other Falco considered. "If they just kill her because they get frustrated over being unable to eliminate any of their targets..."

"No, it´s saver this way." Krystal agreed. "Leon?"

The lizard-child just shrugged his shoulders looking down at the ground.

"So I guess that means `no´." Krystal concluded and he nodded not bothering to reveal anything else. "Fox there´s another thing we didn´t take into account so far." Krystal noted.

"I´m sure there are many things. So what do you mean?" the vulpine inquired.

"We don´t have enough beds for all the children. Where shall they sleep while they´re here?" the vixen considered.

"Well, then we´ll have to buy some. I mean didn´t those guys tell us that everything we took with us when coming into this time we´ll take back again when we leave?" Falco suggested.

"Um, but that only means it doesn´t stay here, doesn´t it. As our time might be different to how it used to be when we left it we can´t tell what we will have or won´t have when we return." Slippy contradicted him.

"Anyway, money won´t be a problem and why do you want to betray anyone?" Fox added.

"Was just saying." Falco shrugged his shoulders.

"And everything that doesn´t belong into the future will stay here when you leave?" the younger Fox wanted to know.

"Yes everything but the things we brought with us we can´t take into the future." Fox confirmed his assumption. "Why´s that important?"

"Because, if you go back and the beds are still on board the ship, they´ll fall down then. Just don´t drop them on anyone." the little fox worried.

"Alright, we´ll make sure not to kill anyone with the beds." Falco replied.

"I guess I´ll go look for Katt now and try to calm her down. Anyone else take care of the beds." Krystal said.


End file.
